What should Joan Macey do with respect to pricing and distribution?
It can be conceived by comparing and evaluating the facts mentioned in the case, and figures revealed in Appendix – B that in both the best and the worst situations of the product effectiveness, Kathon MWX delivers better value for money to the customers. This means that the customers of Kathon MWX are satisfied and delighted with the efficacy and value of the product. This fact indicates that if the customers are contended with product value and efficiency, as well as, appreciate it more as compared to competitors and substitutes available in the market, then they will also be willing to pay more for the product in future. Bearing this approach in mind, Joan Macey can consider increasing the price of the product. This rise in price should be distinctly defined for distributors. First of all, Rohm & Haas should primarily upturn the price they offer to their distributor. Secondly, they should take on improved control over market prices that are offered to the end users of Kathon. This can be achieved by persuading distributors to follow the suggested retail price by the firm. This initiative would allow the company to invest additional earnings into advertising of the product in order to captivate a larger audience.
As far as the distribution is concerned, indirect distribution channels are presently in practice at Rohm & Haas, where products are first sold to the distributors and they further sell them to retailers. Joan Macey should not consider changes in its existing distribution channels, rather she should consider coming up with strategies and initiatives that could improve the performance of exiting distribution operations. For instance, distributors can be offered education and training to effectively manage customers’ concerns and queries (Giddens, 2015).
What is the appropriate strategy for marketing a Kathon MWX type of product?
Kathon MWX is a liquid biocide, which is used for treating metalworking fluid tanks. The primary target market for Kathon MWX is those businesses that own large reservoirs and fluid tanks for metal treatment. The product involves a specialized segment of the market and therefore, conventional promotions and advertising does not seem to be utterly promising. The product needs vigorous advertising and promotional campaign, which is stringently focused and precise to its target market i.e. manufacturing or service companies with large metal treatment tanks, reservoirs etc. In the case of Kathon MWX, traditional TV advertisement, radio buzzing, hoardings billboards and social media campaigning cannot enormously help in amplifying sales (Sprott & Liu, 2016). The appropriate marketing strategy for Kathon MWX should involve personal selling, direct promotion, and advertisement in industrial magazines (Sok & O'Cass, 2015). This mix will certainly help to promote Kathon MWX within its targeted market segment. Below mentioned are the details that can be undertaken;
Personal Selling: Rohm & Haas should hire marketing individuals who specialize in personal selling. They can also opt for developing a team of experts who can also assist distributors or end users in demonstrating the effectiveness of the product. This would help developing an instant brand image to the customers. Trained individuals can better explain the product benefits, as well as, effectiveness of the cost in relation to other substitutes and competitors in the market (Chen et.al, 2014).
Direct Promotion: Direct promotion can be attained through emails and brochures. Brochures should cite all the pros and effectiveness of the product. These brochures should be distributed to the companies. They should also be distributed during the trade shows and respected marketing events.
Advertisement in Industrial Magazines: Lastly, the product should be advertised in relevant magazines that circulate within the target companies (Gatignon et.al, 2016).
What role do formulators play in taking this product to customers? Mill supply warehouses?
Formulators uphold a much more defined stature in a product supply chain than only being defined functioning as ‘mills supply warehouse’. The primary role of the formulators involves the distribution of products to the supply house. Predominantly, they are the downstream characters of the supply chain that facilitates in pushing down the product further in the supply chain to the next component of the chain and sometimes, also to the end users directly. They usually blend the mixtures/substances together with least or no chemical reaction (during blending). Moreover, they play a vital role in augmenting the harmless practice and consumption of chemicals by communicating all the relevant information to the suppliers/ customers and also collaborate with them for effective usage of the product. Additionally, formulators provide significant information to suppliers regarding mixing percentages and its appropriate application to help substance registrants involving the actually usable conditions in the chemical evaluation.
Formulators are also responsible for responding to exposure scenarios that are realistic and relevant. This shows that formulators play a vital role particularly in chemical and pharmaceutical industry and the success of the product largely depends on the performance of the formulator. Likewise, in this case, the sales of Kathon MWX and Kathon 886 MW hugely depend on the role of formulators involved. Most importantly, Rom & Haas should increasingly focus towards targeting formulators as with their effective performance; their product can be effectively pushed further into the supply chain. This will help to enhance brand awareness and to create insight among the end users as well.
What role can the supplier play in developing this market?
Suppliers are completely independent of business organizations and play their role autonomously in the market. However, effective supplier relationships are essential for every organization in order to ensure the timely delivery of the material, which helps to maintain consistent production, as well as, product availability in the market. It is also significant to maintain regular communication and collaboration with the supplier in order to avoid uncertainty and to effectively respond to market dynamics (Homburg et.al, 2015).
Although the functioning of a supplier is independent of its client organization, yet supplier plays a vital role in developing product market for the organization in different ways. For instance, an organization cannot ensure timely delivery and ample availability of its product in the market until its back-end production operations are not completely aligned with its supplier. That is mainly because the delivery of the material and services required to produce finished goods are key aspects for any firm (Sok & O'Cass, 2015). Therefore, development of market through supplier can be taken in regards to managing handling issues and timely delivery to eliminate the instances of stock out and lost sales in the market. Apparently, suppliers uphold the stature of lifeblood for any organization because inadequate supplier relations could not only upset and jeopardize the entire performance of an organization in the market, but also have an impact on its credibility, reputation and eventually its profitability (Grant, 2015).
What factors have led to the failure of Kathon MWX?
In spite of superior product efficacy that also results in superior outcomes, Kathon MWX remained underperformed to the relative expectations. The failure of the Kathon MWX cannot be attributed to a single factor; however, there were some major issues and flaws that resulted in the failure of such a fabulous product. First and the foremost factor that impacted sales and profitability was inapt product branding. Although the sales force of Kathon MWX was efficient, Rohm & Haas did not preserve distinctive branding for Kathon MWX, which resulted in the product exhibiting poor market performance. This has led to consistently declining sales even though there were no issues at the production end or with the usefulness of the product. Apparently, due to poor branding, it performed less than the estimated sales value.
The second factor involved was inadequate and indefinite product marketing. This obstructed the brand visibility and also impacted the development of insight within the target market. The lack of brand visibility and product awareness has moved customers towards preferring other substitutes that were less effective, but progressively more visible in the market. These substitutes include household disinfectants and deodorants. This shows the significance of branding and marketing efforts for any product. No matter how good are the product features, but if it is not proficiently placed, branded, marketed and communicated to the customer, it would not be able to persuade them to buy it (Hollensen, 2015).
Why is Kathon 886 MW so successful?
One of the biggest factors attributed to Kathon 886 MW's success was its distinctive branding. The company offered apt branding budget, sales force and efforts on Kathon 886 MW, which wasn’t the case with Kathon MWX. Rohm & Haas wanted the end users to know about Kathon 886 MW and for that they opt to choose formulators to maintain Kathon 886 MW as a part of their maintenance services. However, it was primarily designed for end-users to use it themselves for maintenance work. The product had its distinguished branding that enabled the Kathon 886 MW to institute its brand image as a powerful biocide available in the market, which is more effective and affordable as compared to other market substitutes. Since the product was developed to treat reservoirs also, the company spent more on its branding to attract bigger clients. Similarly, the bigger budget for its promotion resulted in refined and focused marketing, as well as, branding efforts that eventually brought in higher sales and revenues (Gatignon et.al, 2015). This shows us that effective branding is vital for any product and this is evident here in case of Kathon MWX and Kathon 886 MW.
How should Joan Macey implement her plan of action?
Business environment and the market has now become extremely dynamic and therefore, every organization has to respond to it effectively in order to preserve its market competitiveness (Hsu et.al, 2015). Rohm & Haas is obviously not an exception and changes are inevitable. However, while implementing any course of action for the betterment of the products and organizational profitability, Joan Macey should primarily consider retaining and maintaining the current situation of the products for the next seven months. In other words, she should take any initiative after ensuring that the current product performance would at least sustain and won't deteriorate. Additionally, she should further ensure that the product price also prevails on the similar level even with the improvement transformations in marketing and promotional mix. This would make certain that customer won't be alarmed by the abrupt changes (Gatignon et.al, 2016). She should gradually implement her course of action in a number of phases. She should also follow waterfall approach, which means that next step in the blueprint should be only executed if the previous had been implemented successfully. This will not only enhance visibility but it will also save cost and enhance certainty.
Should Joan Macy be handling this product at all? If not, how can a company realistically introduce new products without compounding organizational problems?
It is not compulsory that every new product essentially results in complex organizational changes (Hsu et.al, 2015). I think that the product management team should analyze the resources involved, financial outcomes and earnings for the organization along with the evaluation of cost and benefits to ensure that the launching a new product will not further complex the organizational changes. Moreover, introducing a new product always involve additional resources, functions, and operations, which can be managed efficiently through effective planning and monitoring. The process can also be checked with pilot performance to avoid major setbacks and can be gradually infused to the regular business functioning. Furthermore, Joan Macey is a capable, talented and experienced marketing manager who has contributed incredibly to the product portfolio of Rohm & Haas. Under Joan's supervision, numerous products have done very well in the market and therefore, solely blaming her for Kathon MWX's poor market performance would be unjustified.
References
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